Two nice little things I’ve found hanging out on the web: the Brilliant Weblog Prize awarded to Mondine 2.0, “our” film’s blog (almost finished now: just a little more patience) and this video, shot at last year’s  Globalquerque Festival . It’s summer yet!

Once we had dealt with the technical issues both inworld (build acceptable avatars, find instruments and animations, build the stage…) and in RL (organize the signal channel from our RL instruments to the streaming server), yesterday’s concert in Second Life was emotional and fun. We “felt” the audience, it felt “like being there”. The vibe is more or less that of a live-on-the-radio performance, maybe more fun because you can actually see the audience and interact with them. It was a success, too: we had a full sim and everyone was happy with the experience.

I thought I’d share here the solution we found to do a “real” live show (not just streaming of prerecorded audio files, as most people do in SL). Here it is:

1. the band gathered in a recording studio (Casamedusa in Milan), The signal from the studio main board was routed to a USB audio interface connected to a PC on which WinAmp and Shoutcast DSP (a WinAmp plugin for audio streaming) had been installed.
2. we bought time on a SL-specialized streaming service based on Shoutcast. You pay according to time and number of people served: we bought 24 hours for 50 avatars for 700 Lindens. When you pay, the service gives you the config parameters for both Shoutcast DSP and the SL land (which needs to read the music stream from that server’s feed). The sound quality was found to be quite good.
3. our avatars were steered by other people, leaving us free to concentrate on the music. We, however, had chosen animations, instruments etc.
4. In the performance room, standing net to us, we set up a laptop logged into SL (via the studio wi-fi) as a “spectator” avatar, allowing us to see the audience inworld and interact with it. (”Hey, you really are raving like there’s no tomorrow! Let’s all fly around the stage!”). The ADSL can take the audio streaming plus one logged-in avatar no problem.
5. in the control room of the studio there was Ginevra with another laptop (this one logged onto the net via UMTS, in order not to burden the bandwidth) logged onto SL with our vocalist Roberta’s avatar. Besides animating it, she was charged with monitoring the inworld audio and reporting any problems to the engineer.

What I think we should try and improve is interacting with the audience. We’d need a much bigger screen in the studio to have a better feeling of what happens inworld; also we need to learn to interact in the presence of significant streaming latency. Setting DSP to the same parameters as the server (128 kps, 44.1 KHz, mono) we had about 15 seconds latency: that is to say, a note we played in RL would be heard inworld 15 secs later. This means that we could not communicate by talking and responding, but only trying to steer the emotion f the performance: warmup first, then full power on, then slow at the very end.

Roberta was great in mixing SL lingo and live concert ritual (”Are you having find, my dear newbies? LOL!”) and the audience really dug it. Except at the end, when we played a solemn, atmospheric Bella Ciao and everyone was still running wild dancing anims. We all need to learn…

Mega thx to everybody who helped out:

Francesco, Velas, Emiliano, Junikiro, Joey, Rosa, Ginevra, Eliver, Tonino, Asian e tutti i volontari della Festa.

Marco (thanks!) rightly points out that the new of the change of djs in Fiamma Fumana is worth an official communication. So: Medhin Paolos, the longtime FF dj, is quitting to pursue her career as a photographer. Fare well, Medhin, let’s stay in touch as we are now! She is being replaced by Missy Jay, who is my guest for this post.

Hello all I am Missy Jay, Missy for friends. I am 30 years old and I spent most of my life as a student in Italy and abroad. When I was not submerged in books I would do music, crafting electronic loops and exploring new trends. After my degree I decided to devote all of my time to music: passion, profession and fun. I am a lucky girl. I started touring Italy and Europe as a dj and going to music expos. From this year I started working with this splendid band and I had the pleasure to meet Mondine, fantastic, uplifting women. I would like to bring my own contribution to Fiamma Fumana. Bring my electronic music culture into the band, adding a finishing dj’s touch. This summer we’ll tour quite a lot, and I am looking forward to meeting you in person or here on the blog!

Thanks to Velas for her work on the avatars; to Asian who did the shots; to Rosa, Emiliano, and Sunrise who helped along I am now in a position to bring you (drum roll) he first publicity photo of Fiamma Fumana, avatar version. From left: me (Mr Volare), completely different from real life but people already know me by this avatar; our ultimate Mediterranean female singer, Roberta (Roberta Landar); drummer and rhythm engine Paolo (Paolo Morpork), very recognizable; Lady Jessica (LadyJessica Luik), red hair and heroic stature; and - looking very much like her real life self - our new dj, Missy Jay (Missyjay Vita). If you enter Second Life add us to your contacts! More info on the June 23rd performance soon.

Well, it could be expected. After all, for all my being skeptical about it, I am a senior member of the Italian community in Second Life, having first logged in in September 2006. In my Second Life I was a student at UnAcademy, a lecturer at Kublai, a sort of guru at the Mondine museum, a commentator (for example of Velas and Roberta as social infrastructures for innovation). But I have never made any music inworld.

This is about to change. Fiamma Fumana will perform at the first Festa dell’Unità of Second Life (a sort of progressive-liberal political rally, which has a deep real life tradition in my native Emilia Romagna region). And we’ll do a REAL live gig, none of the prerecorded stuff that a lot of people do inworld. So download the software, create your avatar an jump in. See you at Genesi Italia, just beneath the Mondine museum. It’ll be fun!

L’idea è venuta a Roberta Bartoletti, sociologa all’università di Urbino. Il progetto del Museo delle mondine ha lasciato una bellissima eredità, cioè un gruppo coeso, veloce e tecnicamente molto preparato che lavora bene in Second Life e che tiene molto a certe tradizioni. Perché non impegnarlo in una nuova sfida, la prima Festa dell’Unità di Second Life? Secondo me è un’idea vincente: le persone con cui ne ho parlato hanno tutte capito immediatamente la sua forza comunicativa.

Ho aderito immediatamente. In qualche senso molto indiretto, la Festa è figlia del Museo, e il Museo è figlio della campagna “25 aprile, 355 bloggers” che ho contribuito a lanciare da mondine.it e a cui ho partecipato con Contrordine compagni. Insomma, sento di entrarci. Contribuirò come posso, cioè portando i Fiamma Fumana per un concerto. La festa si terrà a Genesi Italia, giusto sotto il Museo delle Mondine, nel periodo 15-25 giugno. Se qualcuno vuole entrare nel gruppo organizzatore (tutto funziona tramite un wiki) o proporre qualcosa, scriva pure a Roberta, Elena o anche a me.

Lady J and I are working a lot on the finishing touch to the music for the film about Mondine and to preparing the summer tour (that includes a three-week North American tour in September and October, two of which with mondine! You’ll find a calendar in Fiamma Fumana’s website). Meanwhile, though, we are also thinking about the future.

One thing I would like to be part of my future - and of FF’s - is a “shared space for Emilia’s music and culture”, which we started phantasizing about at the now-famous Fuori Orario dinner, with Franco Bassi, Cisco, Giovanni, our friend at Bonifica Emiliana Veneta and Pive nel sacco, Ezio Bonicelli (former Ustmamò fiddler) an others. I think about it as an annual gathering - a festival? - with the spirit of the Liberation Day concert, to which the remarkable energy surrounding these matters could be channeled; there is a lot of it, also on the internet, as we found out when we launched the “100 Bloggers for Liberation Day” campaign (they ended up being 355) launched by www.mondine.it. A good example of what we could do together is the Mondine Museum in Second Life, conceived and built within
a week by a self-organized group (names and roles here) spearheaded by Velas: a place of great suggestion and intensity, reflecting the values and the culture shared by the group. Have a look at the video below (shot by Alexander Amro, music by Fiamma Fumana e Coro delle Mondine di Novi) and tell me that the “shared space” festival would not be great!

(lo slogan “dalla resistenza al contrattacco” è suo)The Liberation day gathering at Casa Cervi was great. Daniele and Franco of Fuori Orario told us that we broke every record of attendance (ten thousand estimated) and food and drink sold, and from the stage we could only see a sea of people of all ages and all colors, happy to be there together. The internet campaign was also a resounding success. We started off with the aim to get 100 bloggers involved: on April 24th we had 330 participants, which yesterday had risen to 347 and counting. If you look on Flickr or Youtube you find lots of photos and videos. A Second Life Mondine Museum has been started and has started to stimulate mondine-related inworld cultural activities. Casa Cervi also hosted a spontaneous meeting of the analogic network of partisan associations, mondine, Fiamma Fumana and Fuori Orario and the the digital network, the internet of the Resistance and Italy’s collective memory. Some influential bloggers turned up: Alberto, riding his motorbike and obviously happy (he created the slogan “from Resistence to counterstrike”); Antonio, smiling and optimistic (he created the slogan “from Resistence to counterstrike”); Marco; Fabio and Roberta, in representation of the Second Life mondine group; Franca, who posted a lovely chronicle-cum-photos; the invaluable Valeria and Freddy for Mondine 2.0 (Freddy even had to replace me for a radio interview).

At the end of our set, everyone, really really every single person, sang Bella ciao together with mondine, and the emotion melted into a very long applause. I was seized by a sense of gratitude and belonging. We really had this sitting right in front of us for a long time before I actually saw it: the “no spectator allowed, only participants” logic of social networks is the same as that of democratic participation. Which means: build relationships of respect and affection with people you share ideals with. Then work with them to “do stuff” (create a mondine choir, organize a music festival, paint the walls of a Casa del Popolo, whatever), and this “stuff” are building blocks of the world that those ideals depict. This building together is the most powerful force I know, a lot more powerful than just casting your vote once every five years. The counterstrike Antonio talks about, for me, starts here.

Royal Concert Hall, Main Auditorium - Festival website

GREAT NEWS! Frusion’s Ian Smith called me to announce that Celtic Connections has booked our show for the 31st of January 2008, with Mondine and all! We are still waiting on the details (press conference is on Wednesday next week), and the same night the website will launch, but it appears they are setting up a “Voices of the world” night with us, the Bulgarian Women’s Choir (not sure which one) and American girls Uncle Earl. The whole thing should take place in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall… the ladies will be delighted, especially Agnes, the Scottish Rice Weeder, a Glaswegian…